Contentions

TheWashington Post editors seem to like the Joe Biden pick, but they make two points which, whether intentionally or not, make clear that there are some very choppy seas ahead for the Democratic ticket.

First, the Post hits a triple: reminding us of Barack Obama’s non-existent national security bona fides, Biden’s support for the Iraq war and his lame partition idea. In other words, something to disturb everyone on all ends of the political spectrum. They write:

Mr. Biden’s expertise may reassure those who worry about Mr. Obama’s thin résumé in world affairs. We haven’t always agreed with his judgment, such as his advocacy of de facto partition of Iraq when the war was going badly. Mr. Biden stuck to that plan long after it was convincingly debunked as impractical by U.S. military commanders and Iraqi political leaders, and, like Mr. Obama, he wrongly bet against last year’s troop surge. But he is a committed internationalist, and he has used his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to promote intelligent U.S. engagement. The hearings he held before the Iraq war, which he supported, pointed both to the danger posed by Saddam Hussein and the daunting challenges that would follow military action.

The conclusion seems to be that the guy with no experience just selected someone with awful judgment. But then it gets worse. The Post editors share a doozy of a story about The Mouth:

With a knack for self-defeating and insensitive verbosity, Mr. Biden at times has been his own worst enemy. It has been said that, having been lampooned for this filibustering, he became more disciplined. Perhaps, but we saw a glimpse of the old Biden when he met with The Post’s editorial board during his short-lived presidential campaign. Asked about failing schools, Mr. Biden seemed to suggest that one reason so many of the District’s schools fail is the city’s large minority population and contrasted D.C. schools with those in Iowa. “There’s less than 1 percent of the population in Iowa that is African American,” Mr. Biden said. “There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.” The Biden campaign quickly issued a statement asserting that the candidate was referring to socioeconomic status, not racial differences. The lesson we took was not to think that Mr. Biden is a racist — we don’t — but to worry about his tendency to speak too much before he thinks enough.

Yikes. One wonders if the Obama team knew that little tale — and all the others sure to come out.

In an odd way the Biden pick has been liberating for the MSM. Not until Biden’s selection did so many pundits come out and say, “Gosh Obama’s really drowning on the national security front.” Biden has a way of loosening lips. Unfortunately they are usually his own.